Yesterday was just generally great.  We started the day with an amazing breakfast cooked by danny, said our goodbyes and waved to him as we rode towards Gillette, about 40 miles away.  At Hanks the night before, we sat and talked to the locals about the town and the coal mining industry.  One awesome guy, Levi (also offered us his space and his shower!)  is a coal miner in Wright and he was telling us about the gigantic mining machines that we might see on our ride.  Well, we ended up going away from the mines rather than towards them, but we still saw many tractor trailors carrying huge equipment - the tires on these things are the size of my brooklyn apartment. holy crap. we also saw endless train cars filled with coal.

anyway, it was a very quick ride to gillette.  we had the winds pushing us the whole way with lots of flat roads..so we were there in less than 2 hours.  We passed a billoard going into Gillette that said, “If its not a baby, then you’re not pregnant.”  hmmm..

the beginning of the town was all fast food places, grocery stores and such but we stopped in one place and asked where the locals go.  They directed us to an awesome little restaurant called Lula belle’s.  This was obviously the place to be - it was packed with folks, lots of bikers and too super busy waitresses.  Ours was terrific- so friendly and excited for us.  We all got lunch and decided to finally order some homemade pie, dutch apple with vanilla ice cream.  and they were HUGE pieces. soooooo goooood.

we got ready to pay and im sitting there looking at the check and our waitress comes over and grabs it and looks at me and says, oh no! you guys are awesome.  have a great trip.  ANOTHER amazing person..she bought our lunch and we were thrilled!  We left her a heafty tip and a note with our blog and big thanks.  We all decided to start cooking more and eating out less to save money, but with danny’s breakfast and lula belle’s free lunch, we didnt need to worry about it today.  so fantastic!

we had time to kill, so we hung out in a cafe for a bit then headed another 40 miles towards pine haven where we planned to camp.  About 10 miles before pine haven is Moorcroft, another cute little mining town.  As we only had 10 miles to go, we decided to bar hop down their main street.  First to Hoppers, where we enjoyed a pitcher of  bud and some good local pool games, then to Dewey’s place where we ran into several bikers (motorcycles) that had passed us a few times on the road.  They told us about other times they’ve come across touring cyclists and how excited they are about it all.  We ran into them again on our way to Pine Haven.

After 2 pitchers of beer, thats about 2 1/2 beers for me, i was fairly drunk.  its nice to drink beer after riding for a while, but having another 10-15 miles to go sucks.  cus i had to pee the whole time, but didnt want to stop us and couldnt see straight and my muscles didnt want to work.  pretty pathetic really… 2 beers and only 10 miles and it seems that hard.  but after a long enough day, i was ready to just lay down.

well, we got to pine haven and it was so worth it!  we stopped at the grocery store, then the bar for a six pack and directions.  we camped out on cliffs that looked out onto a gorgeous lake.  we had plenty of time before dark..too much maybe.  we ate a great dinner of turkey sandwhiches,  canned beets, cherries and some twizzler things.  oh, and more beer.  the lake was perfect.  finally, trees  all around, sounds of turkeys, frogs, geese, and other little animals running around.  ken and andy built a camp fire (our first) and i cleaned things up and got ready to relax (more).  andy climbed one of the trees to cut branches for the fire.  we decided that since it was such a clear night, we’d try to stay up late enough to see the stars.  yeah, we’re usually asleep before dark.   the stars were incredible..so many!!  i set my alarm for 8 am, sleeping in since we only have 35 miles to devils tower today.. but at 7:15 we were all up and eating breakfast.  it was too nice out to sleep in.  now we’re sitting in the bar down the street, having coffee and some breakfast sides.  off to devils tower in a little bit.

This afternoon, we played a dangerous game of “beat the thunderstorm” as darkening clouds gathered behind us and to the south. I would peer above my sunglasses and see clear blue skies. As the day wore on, I would peer above my sunglasses and see a deepening gloom. Then I would take my sunglasses off, and it wouldn’t be nearly as gloomy and I’d say “oh hey, we’ve got nothing to worry about! This is awesome!” Then I’d turn around to say this to Quinn & Andy and I’d see black clouds behind us, thunder rumbling in the skies. My stomach would drop and I’d push a bit harder.

Every single random person we’d talked to in Wyoming would tell us that the weather could change at the drop of a dime out here. So far, we’ve been lucky enough not to experience that dreadful change. (I knock on wood as I type this) Today, it seemed as if our luck might run out. We took off from Bar Nunn in some of our best weather since the Columbia Gorge in Oregon. It was sunny, warm, and I was wearing one less layer than usual (two: a base layer and a jersey). The first 40 miles to Midwest, WY were spent in this weather. Even the person in the park in Midwest where we had lunch under sunny skies pointed out the clouds around us when we expressed our optimism about our ability to avoid the weather. We grabbed some coffee & beef jerky at the gas station, wrote out some postcards, and rode on.

It was 50 miles until the next town, unless Pine Tree Junction had anything in it besides the intersection of routes 50 & 387. Pine Tree Junction was 30 miles away. Within 10 miles of leaving Midwest, we knew we were playing beat the clock with the system behind us. We suffered up hills and through valleys as the rumbling thunder and darkening, cooling skies got closer and closer. It was inevitable that we would get caught up in the unpredictable Wyoming weather. We fought headwinds for some of the first times on our trip.

With 15 miles to Pine Tree Junction, I started to hope that there’d be some kind of refuge from the rain, because by the time we finished up 15 miles, we’d almost definitely be getting rained on, hard. We pressed on, knowing nothing was between us & our destination in Wright or the storm behind us. The threatening weather seemed wrought by the evil machinations of the waitress in Jeffrey City, who was convinced there’d be no way for us to avoid a debilitating meteorological disaster. We pressed on, prepared for a drenching, donning our rain gear. Pine Tree Junction approached, and it became apparent that there wasn’t anything there. It was nothing but an intersection of two paved roads in Wyoming.

Somewhere behind us, along the path we had already crossed, the storm was drenching the roads. But we remained ahead of it as it passed north of us. The witch of Jeffrey City messed up entirely. (It was newt’s tail, bumblebee wings, AND CROW’S FEATHER! You forgot the Crow’s feather!!! Hahahah you’re a horrible witch!) Furthermore, you forgot to cook Andy’s breakfast. You’re a horrible waitress, too! (Again, I knock on wood as I type this, in case this is a two-day spell or something).

The wood I’m knocking on is in Hank’s Saloon in Wright, Wyoming. We knocked out 85 miles by 4pm, with only a 5 minute break between Midwest and here. When we rolled into Wright, it was threatening rain again. (We had not only beat the storm behind us, but we had run into the tail end of the storm in front of us. Epic fail, crappy witch). Wright is a town of 500, and we needed to find a place to stay and a place to get a beer. The girl at the grocery store knew nothing, but the local newspaper told us that The Rusty Nail was open until 10. At The Rusty Nail, the bartender called up Hank’s Bar & Grill to see if we could camp camp next to the Horseshoe pit in their backyard. “Yeah, sure, no problem,” said Hank. Score. Hank’s, a mile up the road, has beers just about as cheap as the Rusty Nail’s. We met the Rusty Nail’s bartender there, and she introduced us around. We’ve been here for a few hours now, our tents are set up, and as soon as we finish these beers, we’re done for the night.

Oh but wait. It’s cold tonight. Not all that much colder than other days we’ve spent out at night, but cold enough for Hank and Danny (Hank obviously the owner of Hank’s) to convince us not to sleep in a tent. To be honest, it didn’t take much convincing at all. Danny had been chatting us up all night long at the bar and eventually pretty much forced us to pack up the tent & drag everything into his & Hank’s house across the street. Danny, an interior decorator, has made a gorgeous home and is a spectacular host. It’s absolutely more than enough just to let us sleep on a floor. But Danny & Hank had spare rooms for all of us. And in the morning, we woke up to percolating coffee and simmering steak, eggs, and hash browns. Wright was one of our “we have no idea where we’re going to sleep” nights – and it sure worked out for us.

Danny, the best interior decorator west of the Mississippi, and one hell of a host. Thanks, Danny!

Hey Moms! Thanks for raising us to be as awesome as we are. We couldn’t have made it 1200 miles to the KOA site in Bar Nunn, Wyoming (just north of Casper) without you guys teaching us everything there is to know about everything.

So yeah, we’re in Casper Wyoming. Much to the chagrin of the doomsaying waitress at the Split Rock or the Sage Brush in Jeffrey City (one of the two bars is closed, but I can’t remember which), we did not get buried under four feet of snow last night. “Oh, but you will,” she said, “you willlll……” then she backed away slowly, cackling into a steamy, smoky haze where she cooked our breakfasts. Probably with eyes of newts and bumblebee wings or something.

It’s actually quite nice this morning. We got relatively decent sleep, even lthough the KOA is designed so that the tent sites are the closest to the freeway, 100 yards away. Luckily, it’s Sunday (HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY AGAIN), and traffic was pretty light this morning. It’s bright and sunny, and the lady who runs the Kampground told us how John Wayne filmed part of a movie here once.

Back to Jeffrey: We noted a while ago that Strevell, Idaho was a serious ghost town. So is Jeffrey City. But in an entirely different way. As recently as 25 years ago, it was probably as big as Lander (7,000 people). Uranium mining was it’s big industry. Then France bought their uranium mines. And since France had enough uranium of thier own, they completely abandoned the factories in Jeffrey City. With no work, everyone left. A new school had just been built. Rows of “bachelor apartments” were boarded up. Lots of mobile home foundations were left without homes. There’s infrastructure for thousands of people in Jeffrey City. But there are only 30 people living there now. The kids are bussed to Lander for school (60 miles away). Everyone who lived there simply packed up & left. At the abandoned Freemason Meeting Hall next to Byron’s pottery shop, bank statements and six-packs of Coca-Cola and Budweiser were strewn about with late 70’s & mid 80’s dates on them. We spent the night there. It was musty and moderately creepy, but it was out of the wind, and quiet. And completely free.

Wyoming, generally no less elevated than 4,000 ft above sea level (the lowest spot is 3,100 ft at Belle Forche River), is geologically astounding. Places with names like “Fossil Butte” are everywhere, and digging for fossil remnants in ancient ocean beds is a family activity. Kids can keep whatever they find unless they find something extremely rare. Not like the kid would know it’s really rare, but I’m sure if little Bobby showed up with an example of Amiiformes Ammiidae, the guides would totally freak out and probably get promoted or something.

In the morning when we woke up next to the Creek that runs through Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge, I commented to Andy that next time I do this, I want to have a geologist with me, so they can explain to me why the earth is the way it is everywhere that we go.

Mountain ranges, once buried beneath collossal glaciers which have receded only because of harmful industrial pollutants over the past 10,000 years, now peek above masses of rollign land, scoured and sculpted by the movement of the prehistoric ice. As it moved north, it took earth with it, and dumped it between the rock it couldn’t take along the way. We rode along this level part, and up and over the remaining mountains. From those peaks, spectacular ranges and intense color changes surrounded us. Native Americans have lived here since the ice began to move north.

We passed the Continental Divide through the Wind River Mountains. Misleading maps led me to declare “nothing but downhills” for the rest of the way to Lander. I’d like to describe the reality of the next 30 miles, but I think Quinn has already done it in a comment in a previous post: “oh my god. so far from all downhill. it was a lot of uphill with 30 mile winds at our side, pushing us off the road. THEN it was GIANT up and down hills, not enough speed gained going down to get half way up without a lot of work. and with the crazy winds coming from various directions, i didnt feel comfortable coasting 40mph down hill. and then it was pedaling HARD downhill to go 15mph with headwinds pushing me backwards. all downhill is quite a myth as far as i can tell. but it was pretty and we made it eventually.”

It was indeed pretty. All the suffering of an hours long climb is wiped away when you see something like this.

The Red Canyon

In Lander, we found the geologist who could tell us everything we wanted to know about the earth. Juan, who regularly hosts people from warmshowers.com and couchsurfing.com, put us up in a friend’s house because his was too cluttered. Actually, cluttered doesn’t begin to describe it. Juan’s a fine arts photographer. Or, at least that’s part of what he does. He’s a self-admitted pack-rat, and each time he would try to explain why he has a dozen empty tin olive oil cans, he’d come up with a new profession. “Oh, of course I have 600 feet of copper tubing. I’m a plumber.” “I’m a spelunker, so I keep all of my caving equipment in one of my 11 Volvos”. Juan, you should be proud to be the first person to have a post on twoarmparty classified under “crazy people”. Here are a few other things Juan had at least 10 of:

Disney Princess “make your own outfit” refrigerator magnets
Espresso Machines
Trucks
Stainless steel thermoses
License plates for EACH STATE
Plastic dinosaurs
Coffee socks
Toasters (didn’t see ‘em, but I bet he does)
Jars

Anyway, there’s a lot more. Everyone in town seemed to know him. And at dinner at the Gannet Grill (Gannett Mountain is the highest peak in the state. The bike shop is also named after it), he explained a lot of geologic things I didn’t understand. Since beginning to ride, a lot of people out here have seemed to know a lot about what glaciers have done to their land. I didn’t even know what a glacier was, technically. Juan helped me out with that (it’s snow that’s at least 150 feet deep. The ice, under so much pressure, changes consistency at the bottom, becoming almost plastic-like. That’s the short, dumbed-down version.) He also explained how weather systems from the west crash into the mountain peaks, cool down quickly, dump horrible weather all over the place, then warm up slower on the other side & whip up serious warm “Chinook” winds (or “Snow Eater). I probably got that part wrong too…but I’ll look it up later.

Since Juan’s place was filled up with everything, he put us up at a friend’s place, who was more than willing to accomodate us. Actually, he wasn’t even around…but later on, he said it was totally cool. Then Quinn fell ill and we stayed at the Holiday Lodge where she could rest rest rest and get all high on Codiene. The Holiday Lodge had an awesome neon sign and a hot-tub, which I lounged in while doing laundry.

I'm serious, why didn't I start taking photos of motels sooner?!

While in Lander, I wandered through the park & ran into a pretty girl on a bike who invited me to the Catholic Girl’s College for dinner. Was it a terrible mistake and a tremendously missed opportunity for Andy & me to decline this offer? Keep in mind that at one point she did mention that “she fell in love with God again.”

We are now in the town of Jeffery City (pop 30-40), where we seem to be missing the inimitable “Byron Seeley”. Everyone in Lander not only knew Juan, but also knew Byron. Even the Catholic College girl. Byron’s pottery (monkingbirdpottery.com) was all over the Folklore coffeeshop (where Andy & I spent most of our time). Shane told us “this might sound weird, but there’s nothing to be creeped out about by Byron. He’s a really sweet guy. Really.” We were really looking forward to meeting him, but it seems like we might be out of luck. Jeffery City is definitely a ghost town, and we’ll show some photos eventually. It’s not nearly as much of a ghost town as Strevell, Idaho (there IS wifi here), but since the Uranium mining trade dried up (apparently), everyone has moved away.

I updated the daily mileage page.. check it out.  its at the top next to home, about, the route..

Late last week i started feeling like i was getting sick.  I was taking dayquil and nyquil and vitamin c and drinking as much water as p0ssible, but after 110 miles to lander, my body wasnt happy and i woke up the next day feeling like crap.  Ken and Andy were understanding and agreed to a day or two of rest so i could get better and not worse after more riding days.  Man did this suck, i really hate to slow us down (more than i already do up hills) and it also just sucks to be sick.  I called my mom for advice on what to take and she proceeded to research doctors in lander, made me an appointment, made reservations at a hotel and made friends in lander.  This was all in about 15 minutes (i did lots of holding).  Amazing, thanks mom.  She even paid for two hotel rooms so the guys wouldnt get sick and i could just sleep all day undisturbed.  oh, and she also offered/threatened to come out here and take care of me if i didnt do it myself.

I went to the doctor and they tested me for the flu and strep and thankfully i dont have either of those, i’m just sick.  They gave me antibiotics just in case and some cough medication with codeine.  Azithromycin and prometh with codeine.  The codeine puts me right to sleep and after two days of laying in bed and sleeping, im feeling a lot better.  but man does it suck to be inside when its so nice out and i know the guys are out exploring.  ugh. so boring.  but better than getting worse.  and as its such a small town here in lander, they came back tonight telling me that everybody in town wishes me the best.  ha!  and this is the biggest wyoming town we’ve seen yet.

tomorrow we’re gonna take it easy and ride 60 miles to another town and then the next day to casper.  im excited to get back on my bike and i hope my body is too!  i know we’re ahead of schedule,  but its no fun to be sick and i sure hope the guys dont get it!

While in lander, Folklore coffee shop has been very welcoming and hospitable.  We’re pretty much regulars at this point.  There isn’t too much to do in this town.  Ken and i rode up to Sinks canyon this morning and i rented some climbing shoes and bouldered for a little bit but now we’re back.  Sinks canyon is a geological mystery.  At the base of the wind river mountains, through madison granite runs the sinks and the rise.  The sinks river enters the mountain on one side of the roadway. It looks like the water is just flowing into a cave in the mountain. But oh no! 1/4 mile down the road on the other side it exits from beneath felled rocks millions of years old.  Geologists have performed dye tests to be certain it is the same water.  The only mystery now, is the 2 hours it takes for the water to flow 1/4 mile.  Where does it go?  What does it do?  2 hours?! C’mon!  Salmon swim faster than that making their way upstream!  And we ride faster than that going up a mountain with headwind! Ridiculous.

Poof! The river disappears!

a rope bridge leading to a nature trail in sinks canyon

it looks like i'm just standing with my arm out but i swear i'm hanging

We passed the Continental Divide on our way to Lander. A week or so ago, at the Hugens’ in Boise, we found out what a Continental Divide *was*. It’s the sort-of imaginary line that divides where all water eventually flows either into the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans. So if we pee in a stream anywhere between here & home, it’s eventually going to run into the Atlantic. Viva.

This is our shoutout to the Atlantic Ocean... HOLLAAAAAAAA!!!!